EU ombudsman blasts secret pesticide positions

EU Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly on Tuesday reprimanded Brussels for maladministration for withholding information about national governments' stances on a strict methodology for assessing pesticides' impact on bees.

In 2013, the European Food Safety Authority drafted the methodology — known as the "bee-guidance document" — to ensure that regulators properly accounted for bees in their risk assessments. Scientists widely suspect pesticide spraying as one of the factors behind the collapse of bee populations.

This stricter methodology informed the EU's decision to permanently ban three neonicotinoid pesticides last year.

However, Brussels has not fully implemented the bee-guidance document into its pesticide-assessment procedure due to opposition from some governments in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed — a powerful Commission regulatory body which meets behinds closed doors.

Activists argue that pesticide makers and governments fear that a full implementation would mean more product bans.

The European Commission refused a request from French non-governmental organization POLLINIS last year for the details about the various national stances, citing the need to protect an ongoing process.

O'Reilly said this was invalid. "Some national authorities are blocking their implementation by the Commission," she stated.

"This is entirely their decision, but when they make it, European citizens have a right to know the position their own government took, just as they should at member state level. Biodiversity is a particularly important issue,” she added.

Brussels also stirred anger this month by calling for a revision of the bee-guidance document, raising fears — which it denied — that it would weaken standards.